


Elevator Buttons and Icy Glares

by taylorswift



Category: Actor RPF, Marvel Cinematic Universe RPF, RPF - Fandom
Genre: AOU Press Tour, F/M, Jealousy, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Totally spoofed Ours by Taylor Swift for the title sorry I'm not sorry, Trapped In Elevator, what are these tags even
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-11
Updated: 2015-04-11
Packaged: 2018-03-24 16:16:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3775204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/taylorswift/pseuds/taylorswift
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The one person that he wanted was her. Sure, he still wanted her, but more importantly, he needed for her to be there, to support him, hell, to acknowledge his existence would have been nice. And yet, here he was, sitting on the couch in the background while she preoccupied herself with Mark.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Elevator Buttons and Icy Glares

**Author's Note:**

> As if you don't know what this is or where it came from.

The closer Age of Ultron came, the more anticipation that stacked up on Jeremy’s shoulders. Press tour, mostly, but not so much because it was a press tour; each and every day it looked more and more like a fucking oasis. After his marriage somehow, not so surprisingly got screwed up, a messy divorce and what turned out to be the soon-to-be ex-wife from hell, he couldn’t wait to throw himself into work. Wasn’t like that would be too hard anyways; he always did, and being around the cast seemed to ease his nerves about, well, everything.

What he hadn’t expected was to go back and be treated like the fucking newbie. For god’s sake, even the newbies seemed like they belonged here more than he did. It wasn’t a lack of attention coming his way; it was the lack of attention from the very person who he had been banking on when he walked in the door.

Every time he looked up from whatever he was preoccupying himself with, it was right there in front of him, taunting him endlessly. She was all over Mark, she was laughing at every goddamn syllable that came out of his mouth, she was taking selfies with him and Rob like they were a group of teenagers, everywhere it seemed she went, he was there also. He’d swallow hard every time, holding his tongue in his mouth to keep from lashing out. It burned him up; since when was Ruffalo her favorite person? He could handle her being like that with Evans or Rob, she had known them forever and every movie they did it was the same cycle. They always gravitated towards each other. Hell, handling her and Hemsworth’s little friendship was more bearable than this one with Mark. He’d already had to watch it play out for months the previous summer, their characters together at every waking moment. What, was he going to have to deal with them being glued at the hip out of character now, too?

He was seeing red every time he blinked; to say that jealousy had overcome all common sense was an understatement. He was fuming, and he had no right to. Part of him was actively working to delude himself into a million other excuses as to why he was getting so worked up over them being together–he was only trying to stand for the sanctity of both their marriages, he had a migraine coming on and could use some quiet, he couldn’t even hear for his cue to go into an interview because of their obnoxious laughter, the list went on. Jeremy wasn’t stupid though, he knew why it bothered him so deeply. That was supposed to be  _them_.

It was supposed to be him and Scarlett getting on everyone’s nerves, having conversations about meaningless things at top volume and laughing hysterically over nothing. He was the one she was supposed to be hanging onto, taking stupid selfies with and sitting next to whenever they had down time, snickering whenever someone mentioned something remotely inappropriate, teasing her and complimenting her the whole time. They were a package deal last time, and he’d yet to understand how that wasn’t the case this go round. The choice was clear, as to who had more chemistry. Sure, they were a PR nightmare–maybe more so than Chris Squared–but they worked well together. He could taste the metal in his mouth as he continued to stare at them from underneath his glasses, blood boiling as the two of them crowded around Rob’s phone to look through all their pictures. That was supposed to be him, dammit. It was  _him_  who she was supposed to be partners with, and now he couldn’t even get her to hold her eyes in his direction for a minute.

Returning his attention to his emails, he tried to keep focus on how monotonous and boring they were. But of course, the much more interesting conversation a few feet away continued to pull him away, Jeremy getting more and more intrigued with listening in.

“Oh my god, look at my face!” Scarlett wailed, groaning playfully. “Delete it before your phone breaks.”

“Ah, too late,” Robert sang. “Just uploaded it to Twitter–oh look, two hundred retweets already.”

“Fuck!”

Jeremy watched as Mark nudged Scarlett with his elbow. “Come on now, you look fine; could look like me. Or Robert, I think Rob looks worse than the both of us.”

“I take total offense on that, just so you know.”

“I bet you do, big guy.”

Jeremy suppressed yet another sigh; he might as well have been the same color as the wallpaper, because it was almost as though no one knew he was there. Couldn’t blame them, really, they were caught up in their own little world and with his usually-loud mouth sewed shut, no wonder they didn’t notice him.  _God_ , he thought.  _Tomorrow, I’m doing shots before this._

Cobie came into view a few moments and snarky thoughts later; he was grateful that he was at least paired up with her. Not only was she fun to sit around and talk with, she didn’t feel the need to point out that he was obviously still not back to one hundred percent. “Hey,” she said, shaking him from his thoughts and breaking his glare on the small group in the corner. “We still have a few more rounds to go; we’re free to go do whatever while we wait.”

Glancing back down at his phone, he shot her a tight-lipped smile. “I’m, uh, I’m good here. But thanks.”

She gave him a sad little smile, leaning down towards him. Cobie whispered, “Fourth floor is reporter free for the time being, Scarlett and Mark don’t have to be up there for another twenty minutes.”

He was grateful for people like her.

Making his way into the elevator, his finger found the button that would take him back up to the top level of the building they were doing all of their interviews and conferences in for the next few days. Jeremy tapped his foot anxiously, waiting on the doors to close. It would be nice to escape for a little bit, especially to recollect his thoughts and make a new game plan towards the whole Scarlett and Mark issue. The doors finally started to slide to a close, and right as they met in the middle, they instantly peeled back apart. Standing there at the mouth of the doors was probably the last person he’d want to share an elevator with.

Scarlett crossed over the threshold, Jeremy frozen in his spot there in the corner. He wanted nothing more than to get out of the elevator and just wait downstairs; why the hell was she starting upstairs twenty minutes early? Her eyes flashed over him for a brief moment before moving onto the elevator buttons. She seemed relatively surprised that the button she was going to press was already glowing, but resigned to her side of the elevator once it clicked.

The doors slid shut for the second time, and a few seconds later, the lift started its ascent. It was deadly silent; the tension between the two of them thick enough that it was almost tangible. Jeremy swallowed hard; he stole small looks in her direction every second or so, trying to think of what to do. He obviously couldn’t let this go on, the two of them acting like they didn’t know who the other was. Thing was, he had no idea how to go about it without making an even bigger mess of the already fragile things in his life. So he took a deep breath and decided to do what he knew how to do best: reckless, drunken behavior.

Slamming his fist down on the emergency brake, the elevator came to a lurching stop. She looked over at him from her respective corner– _god, was she really standing that far away from him_?–with pure spite in her eyes. “What was that for?”

Jeremy shrugged, playing her anger to his advantage; the only plan he had in place was to piss her off even more. “Hand slipped,” he replied nonchalantly. Scarlett’s eyes narrowed into slits.

“Start it back.”

“No,” he answered defiantly.

“Renner–”

“Oh, you remember my name?”

She shook her head, a few pieces of her hair falling in her face. “Oh, god; how old are you? Four?”

“Just surprised, that’s all—“

“We were standing  _right_  over there, I didn’t think you needed a fucking invitation delivered to you to come and join us!” she fought back. Her chest was rising and falling a lot faster and her cheeks were going red, a tell-tale sign that she was getting worked up, and fast.

Jeremy tossed his head, the cheery words coming out of his mouth laced with venom. “Well, you and Ruffalo were having such a splendid time together; I hated to interrupt all the fun!”

“So that’s what this is about,” Scarlett sighed irritably, rolling her eyes. “You’re just jealous that I’m spending more time with him than I am with you?”

“Wake up sweetheart; you’re not the only thing on my mind.”

“Well I must be there enough, seeing as how you’re going crazy because of a _business relationship_!”

“Business relationship my ass,” Jeremy snorted. “You might as well string yourself up on a curtain rod, the way you’re draped over him.”

“I’m  _married_ ,” Scarlett seethed. “In case you forgot.”

“How could I forget, hearing the jolly good news from a Google alert almost three months after the fact?”

“Is that it? Are you hung up over the fact that I got married—“

“Scarlett, I could care less if you got fucking married—“

“—sure doesn’t come off that way, if I didn’t know any better I’d assume you were still hung up on  _me—“_

His eyes went dark as he glared at her. He didn’t think he’d had it in her, to stoop as low as to bring up their past rendezvous. He figured it was all said and done, buried under the hotel beds they’d left that relationship at, but here she was, throwing it back out into the open like a grenade. “Don’t you even start,” he growled.

“Are you drunk?” she finally accused.

“Are  _you_?”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if you were.”

“Well I’m not, so moving onto your next allegation—“

“Allegation?” She leaned away from him, clearly appalled as she shook her head, holding both hands out in mock arrest. “I’m not the one pointing fingers, Renner, you started this?”

“And who’s the four year old now?” he chuckled darkly.

Scarlett was furious at that point, green eyes smoldering as she jabbed her finger in the direction of his chest. “You need to grow the hell up, Jeremy, acting childish isn’t going to solve your little attention issues.”

“That’s not it!” he stormed, his voice dangerously close to a yell that almost everyone in the building could hear.

“Then what is? What the fuck is your problem, Jeremy?” she shouted, fire dancing in her eyes. That was all it took for Jeremy to snap clean in half.

“I missed you, dammit!” Jeremy yelled over her, Scarlett immediately falling silent. One of his balled up fists came down on the railing, the other still by his side and white knuckled all the same. “I…fuck, Scarlett, I missed you and I just, I thought being around you again would get my mind off all the shit going down, because you always make me laugh and now you’re never around or with someone else, and I sound like such a fucking  _kid,_  but…I, I don’t know.” Lifting a slightly trembling hand, he rubbed at the base of his chin, where his goatee was already starting to grow back. “I needed you. I still do.”

“Jeremy…” Scarlett started, her voice soft, but Jeremy shook his head. He knew what he was going to hear, and frankly, he didn’t want to hear it at all.

“No. I’m not looking for your  _pity_ ,” he spat, jamming his finger on the control panel and the elevator lurching to life. He felt sick to his stomach, he wanted to get the hell out of this tight little space and far, far away from those green eyes of his that were piercing through his soul.

Silently, and with a fierce determination in her step, she strode across the small space in between her and the control panel, forcing the brake back down again. This time, the stop seemed a lot jerkier, as the elevator froze once more. Her eyes burned into the side of his temple, as he was choosing to stare off towards the wall. “Pity?” she barked. “You think me, of all people, is going to show you pity? I don’t look at you like a charity case, none of us do.”

“Really?” he asked, his voice stiff. “Because every word I’ve gotten from everyone that I haven’t seen since filming has been, ‘ _how are you?_ ’ or ‘ _everything alright?’_  I just want someone to act like I’m not going through what I am, to get my mind off of it, because this is the one time I get to run away from it for a little bit. And yet, all anyone seems to do is bring it up. Hell, I haven’t even gotten so much as an acknowledgement of my presence from you.”

She clammed up quickly, scratching at the top of her hand. “That’s because—“

“Because you’ve been stuck to Ruffalo’s side,” Jeremy finished for her. Taking a deep breath, he let the words he’d been holding back all day spill over his tongue. “And yeah, I am jealous. I  _am_  jealous that he gets to spend all this time with you, gets to do interviews with you, gets a suggestive plot with you and is hovering over you all the time. I’m upset because that was supposed to be  _us_ , Scarlett. Me and you, like we talked about last time.”

“You made your decision—“ she started, and Jeremy lifted one of his hands to stop her.

“No, don’t say that was my fault. I went along with it because I didn’t know what you wanted. I knew you had that arrow necklace, yeah yeah yeah, but I wasn’t going to make an already stiff situation even more uncomfortable. I had a kid, you were pregnant and engaged…I wasn’t willing to drag old skeletons out of the closet. I did it because I wanted you to be happy.”

“It would have all been in character,” she pointed out quietly, and Jeremy laughed scathingly.

“For you, maybe.”

Scarlett let out a sigh, her green eyes softening. “I…I don’t know what to tell you there,” she admitted. “But I can tell you that making that decision didn’t make me happy. I wanted to be in interviews with you too, I wanted to have that relationship with Clint. With  _you._  Like we planned. Not Ruffalo and his…burning desire.” She shuddered at the mention of it, and it cracked a smile on his face for a brief moment.

“It’s too late now,” he said, the smile fading away as quickly as it had come. “You’re with Ruffalo all the time now and everyone fucking cheers it on.”

“Ruffalo is not my new best friend, Jeremy, he’s not replacing you.”

“For god’s sake, Scarlett, I can’t even be in a picture with you without him standing in between us.” He watched her closely, her bottom lip slowly moving underneath the top one and her teeth grazing over it forcefully. “Scarlett—“ he sighed.

She shook her head as she quickly filled in the space between them. Resting either hand on the sides of his face, those same green eyes that he’d fallen in love with him stared hard into his own grey ones. “I am sorry,” she whispered, the sincerity dripping from her voice and hitting him right down to the bone. “I am sorry that this isn’t how we thought it would be. I’m sorry that Mark and I are paired up and you think we’re now all of a sudden best friends. I’m sorry that you think I could ever replace you, because that’s the farthest thing from the truth.” She paused for a moment, before finishing. “I’m sorry that you’re getting a divorce, I’m sorry that it’s ruining your life; hell, I’m sorry that  _I_  probably ruined your life at some point in time.”

He lifted his own hands up to cover her smaller ones, fingers linking in between a few of hers. His voice was low and gravelly, trying to fight back the emotion building up in his throat. “You could have never ruined my life, Scarlett. Ever.”

“I’m sorry Jer…I’m just, I’m sorry,” she whispered so quietly, it was a near prayer. And she kept whispering it, her hands moving from his face to around his neck as she pulled him down into a hug. His hands wound around her waist, the smell of her perfume strong and filled with enough bittersweet memories to knock him to his knees. He bit down hard on his lip, knowing that he couldn’t cry there on her shoulder. The tears pricked at the corners of his eyes, threatening to spill over and the lump in his throat throbbing as he tried to swallow around it. Her hands were moving in concentric circles on his back, slow and soothing as she did her best to comfort him. He finally had trouble keeping the waterworks suppressed for long, and a tear escaped him as he clenched his eyes shut tightly. There was just  _so_ much pressing on his conscience that he hadn’t even realized, and being there in her arms again—even if it wasn’t in the scenario he truly wished for, was enough to dull the pain. It was like he’d hoped for, walking in the press tour. No one was able to solace him like Scarlett could; no one truly got him like she did.

After a few moments locked in their embrace, Scarlett finally pulled away from him. The corners of her lips turned upwards in a half smile as she reached out towards the panel, reversing the brake and the elevator coming back to life. She backed up, leaning up against the railing of the elevator a few feet away from him. It was silent again, but this time, a more comfortable silence settling around the two of them.

“You know,” Jeremy finally said, eyes glancing over in her direction, almost longingly. “If you weren’t married, this would be the part where I’d kiss you.”

Color flushed through her cheeks as she kept her line of sight on the floor of the elevator. “Yeah,” she muttered softly, a small laugh forcing its way up her throat and past her lips. The elevator finally stopped moving, a faint ding overhead signaling their arrival to the right floor. “Yeah, I know.”


End file.
